Art in the Parks

Through collaborations with a diverse group of arts organizations and artists, Parks bringsto the public both experimental and traditional art in many park locations. Please browse ourlist of current exhibits below, explore our archives of past exhibits or readmore about the Art in the Parks Program.

Public Art Map and Guide

Find out which current exhibits are on display near you, and browse our permanent monument collection.

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Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

​The Art Students League of New York, one of America’s premier art schools, presents the Model to Monument Program (M2M), a collaboration with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation that has culminated in the installation of one monumental sculpture, Mask, at Van Cortlandt Park.

The sculpture was created by an international team of seven selected League students during a nine-month program led by master sculptor Greg Wyatt. The decision to sculpt a theatrical mask grew out the artists’ visits to Van Corltandt. The site is near the Red Steps below the Van Cortlandt House Museum, where public theater events are being introduced by Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy. The artists are: Elizabeth Allison, John Balsamo, Allston Chapman, Akihiro Ito, Selva Sanjines, Noa Shay, and Matthew White.

Model to Monument provides a project-driven program, site-specific for the students that focuses their artistic and professional development and their ability to respond to an environment. The artists’ experience working with the City gives them the ability and background to create new public works for people to contemplate and enjoy in the years and decades to come.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership presents Tomorrow, a temporary installation by Akihiro Ito. From September 27, 2012 through August 2013, the piece will be installed at the northeast corner of Fort Greene Park (Myrtle and Washington Park).

Akihiro Ito’s sculpture, Tomorrow, illustrates the harmony between humans and their natural surroundings, and reminds us of the importance of preserving our environment. Tomorrow is made of 600 pieces of laminated dimensional wood (Douglas fir) which form the shape of a baby – a symbol of future generations. He used this material to draw the connection between people and nature. Wood is environmentally friendly as it emits no pollutants, is a familiar resource that has been utilized for millennia, and instills feelings of warmth, serenity, and relief in people. Mr. Ito says, “Nowadays, we are facing serious environmental problems such as global warming, waste and resource depletion. We have to preserve nature and save our earth for our future generations and for all living beings. I hope this sculpture provides an opportunity for people to think about humanity’s connection to nature, and reminds us that we are all part of earth’s family.”

“Bringing sculpture to Myrtle Avenue is part of the Partnership’s larger public art initiative to underscore the neighborhood’s creative spirit and highlight our public spaces with art,” says Meredith Phillips Almeida, the Partnership’s Deputy Director. Throughout the duration of the installation, an informational card about the artist and work, designed by the Partnership, will be available at the site. The Partnership will also develop a site visit guide for local schools.

Please visit the Partnership’s website for more information about the organization and their initiatives.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

Fort Greene Park welcomes New Zealand artist Kate Newby’s latest site-specific sculpture exhibition, “How funny are you today, New York.” The new work builds on her ongoing interest in creating work that is ephemeral and often peripheral that is integrated into public environments. Situated in the historic setting of Fort Greene Park, a place where art, life, tradition, and culture have coalesced for centuries, Newby finds her muse in a pronounced boulder locals call “the Grey Painted Rock.” Creating a space where semi-precious and industrial materials get integrated seamlessly into the urban landscape, Newby’s installation invites park visitors to stop and rest or play while simultaneously forcing the viewer to address the artist’s reconsideration of the environment’s norms.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:â€‹Kate Newby’s work is often developed as an intervention in public space. All parts. All the time. engages two sites, Olive St. Garden and Cooper Park, both within blocks of ISCP in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Using semi precious and industrial materials to create an embedded concrete puddle in the center of Cooper Park, as well as hanging porcelain chimes and a concrete rock bench Olive St. Garden, Newby engages with the conditions of lived space, intervening in these specialized locations.
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As with past works, Newby’s installations are developed in response to everyday built environment; carpets, windows and curtains, steps and passageways. Each gives evidence to the space as an inhabited or occupied site, but can also be used to interrupt, reconsider or challenge the unspoken norms of an environment or situation.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

Brooklyn-based artist Virginia Overton is known for her sculptures that incorporate raw materials and found objects, often using and re-using elements until they naturally decay. For High Line Art, Overton will transform an old pickup truck into a sculpture installed on the stacked parking next to the High Line at West 20th Street.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

El Anatsui, the celebrated contemporary artist based in Nigeria, is known for his monumental wall tapestries, which are intricately composed of metallic bottle caps culled from discarded Nigerian liquor bottles and woven together with copper wire. For High Line Art, the artist will present a newly-configured installation of Broken Bridge, a monumental drapery made of pressed tin and mirrors, which will hang on an outdoor wall adjacent to the park. Composing a stunning visual of wave-like patterns and folds, the work will reflect the surrounding landscape and mark the artist’s first outdoor installation in the United States.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:Robert Sestok spent most of his career living and working in downtown Detroit, Michigan, which greatly influenced his artistic methods. As part of Detroit’s Cass Corridor arts community, a vibrant movement of artists, musicians, poets and writers during the 60s and 70s, Sestok frequently used found objects and other non-traditional materials, tearing things apart and reconstructing them. This deconstructivist process reflected the reality of the city at the time, and can still be seen today. Though hailing from the Motor City, Sestok frequented New York throughout his life and stated that First Street Iron is “a tribute to my past associations with the city of New York.”

This ten-foot-tall, welded steel sculpture will be placed in the formerly inaccessible property at 33 First Street acquired by New York City’s Parks & Recreation the in 1935. Since 2008, First Street Green (FSG) has worked with Parks Department to revitalize the fallow lot adjacent to First Park—with the goal to remove the rubble and create a plaza and cultural space. The lot was fully renovated with a newly stabilized and paved plaza, landscaping and cast-iron fencing in 2011 when the park hosted the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a three-month temporary pavilion and public forum in which a varied range of cultural activities occurred. During this period 55,000 visitors attended—reinforcing First Street Green’s original observation of a strong need and broad interest in an ongoing cultural space open for public use.

Various, LilliputApril 19, 2012 to April 14, 2013Throughout the High LineThe High Line, Manhattan

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

Lilliput will reflect on the traditional role of public art by offering a counterbalance to the monumental scale often employed for plaza sculptures and other outdoor installations in public spaces. As the first project in the HIGH LINE COMMISSIONS series for spring, 2012, Lilliput will feature miniature sculptures installed in unusual and unexpected places at the High Line – amongst the vegetation and along the pathway – to create an art treasure hunt for visitors. Lilliput takes its title from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, conjuring a magical world populated by fairy tale creatures, mysterious idols, and dreamlike landscapes.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

For the High Line, Uri Aran presents a sound work that explores how we use personification and animal metaphors to define human behavior in our daily conversations. Working with a professional voice actor who uses a formal, slightly affected pronunciation, Aran has created a sound track that will emanate softly from the planting beds below the elevated pathway on the High Line between West 25th and West 26th Streets. The sound track features the actor reading a list of creatures, from common ones, like the household cat and the spider, to more wild ones, such the platypus and the shark, each described as “good” or “bad.” Serious and at times comical, the expressionless tone of the actor’s voice will clash with the definition of these creatures as either “good” or “bad,” sparking dialogue about the arbitrary nature of classification in language.

“Uri Aran’s imaginative works have always amazed me,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator and Director of High Line Art. “I look forward to watching visitors experience this installation and how they react to it as they walk along the High Line.”